Rice crisis is the Arroyo government’s own doing, can be her undoing

Rice crisis is the Arroyo government’s own doing, can be her undoing Scientists recommend price control, policies to for food security and self-sufficiency

An immediate price cap on rice to avoid spiraling market prices together with medium and long term policies to develop the domestic rice industry will bring us out of the current crisis in rice supply and prices, said the scientists group AGHAM in a statement today.

“The current crisis is a result of GMA’s policies that prefers imports in addressing domestic supply shortages and the government’s almost total withdrawal from developing the rice industry”, said Ms. Feny

Cosico, agriculturist and convenor of AGHAM-NFA chapter. AGHAM is the amahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan or dvocates of Science and Technology for the People.

“We have been importing an average of 800,000 metric tons of rice ince 1996. This has gone over a million in the past three years and as risen to around 2.4 million metric tons this year. This dependence on rice imports make us vulnerable to world market price and supply luctuations.”, added Ms. Cosico.

Ms. Feny Cosico noted that domestic rice prices follow world prices argely because of the increased imports of rice from countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan.

“Domestic production is unable to satisfy our rice needs because of the generally backward conditions of production riding on widespread landlesness of farmers engaged in the rice sector. When the local rice industry should be backbone, government’s disinterest has broken this to our detriment.”, said Ms. Cosico.

“Less than 1% of farmers use tractors and power tillers. Only five bags of fertilizer from the recommended eight per hectare is being used. Only 15-20% of total harvests, 65% at post-harvest level are recovered due to lack of mechanization. These results to a low
productivity of around 3.5 MT/hectare making us one of the lowest in Southeast Asia.”, explained Ms. Cosico.

“There is lack of credit support for small rice farmers and mostly limited to the promotion of hybrid varieties. Infrastructure development is lacking as in irrigation which cover only 45 per cent of total irrigable lands. Government limits its palay procurement to
only about 2-5% of total palay production and instead spends scarce funds in rice importation”, lamented Ms.Cosico.

“This lack of support is further aggravated by the existence of a rice cartel and unscrupulous traders and government officials that manipulate stocks and prices, as well as scandals like the P729 million fertilizer fund scam of Jocjoc Bolante”, said Ms. Cosico.

“To immediately prevent runaway rice prices, a price cap and price control should be implemented”, stressed Ms. Cosico. “Prices should be maintained at reasonable levels for consumers. NFA has previously set this at around 18 pesos per kilogram. It should not be allowed to deviate from this.”

AGHAM further stressed that steps to ensure rice stocks and improve local production towards lessening imports should be taken. Construction of required irrigation systems and development of post-harvest facilities should be done. Palay procurement should be
increased from its current level to at least twenty five per cent (25%) of the total palay production.

“Unless the Arroyo government reverses its liberalization policies, and implement steps to achieve genuine food security and self-sufficiency, the rice crisis, and government’s complicity in it, may yet prove to be Mrs. Arroyo’s undoing”, Ms. Cosico concluded.#

Reference:
Ms. Feny Cosico, AGHAM agriculturist and AGHAM-NFA convenor, 09162597716